Faculty Senate 11/06/2015

Transcription

1 Faculty Senate 11/06/2015 Delta Center, Second Floor Board Room 3:00 p.m. Attendance: Greg Phillips, Sam Pae, Richard Segall, John Beineke, Julie Grady, Mitch Holifield, Ryan Kelly, Loretta McGregor, Claire Abernathy, Bill Rowe, Larz Roberts, Rejoice Addae, Brinda McKinney, Debbie Shelton, Amber Wooten, Bob Bennett, Jeff Jenness, Bruce Johnson, Fabricio Medina-Bolivar, Suzanne Melescue Approval of Minutes of October 2, 2015 Motion to approve: Bill Rowe, Second: Larz Roberts Vote: Approval of Minutes of October 16, 2015 Motion to approve: Loretta McGregor, Second: Bill Rowe Vote: Old Business: SGOC Proposals 15 FA 05, Changes in Section I, Faculty Handbook o Motion to approve: Greg Phillips Second: Loretta McGregor o Discussion Ryan Kelly: Marital status is still not mentioned. Discrimination based on marital status, including those in same-gender marriages is still a possibility. Greg Phillips: Issue is being discussed at the system level. Whichever version of the non-discrimination policy is adopted will be inserted in this version of the Faculty Handbook. Greg Phillips: We could include this as a friendly amendment. Greg Phillips: Friendly amendment: Accept 15FA05 with a recommendation to add marital status as a protected group. Second: Loretta McGregor o Vote: ITTC/AOS Changes Response from Provost Cooksey: provided a written response in your packet. Discussion o John Beineke: I have been at a conference. Upon returning I received communication that there will be additional personnel that may go to ITS or ITTC. Does that mean that the two documents that were sent previously have been withdrawn? I heard that Dr. Cooksey had a death in the family and will not be able to respond to questions until next week.

2 o Greg Phillips: Apparently the ITTC and AOFS staff were combined and will now be separated. It seems to me that there is an effort to divide those programs. o John Beineke: There is an issue of how much assistance will need to be given. I would like to have the assistance. It makes my courses stronger. o Greg Phillips: It is not in our job description to be a digital course designer. The university should provide this assistance. o John Beineke: I have 750 students in one course and 110 in another course. It takes a great deal of time to correct mistakes in Blackboard after the fact for so many students. o Mitch Holifield: The memo from Rhonda Dauer outlines reduced support. One of the purposes of the AOFS staff is to provide one-on-one meetings to support faculty. o Greg Phillips: My interpretation is that we will have a greater level of assistance. The last paragraph of Dr. Cooksey s response is as follows: Reorganization of A-State Online Faculty Support resources will allow faculty to have more options than before in terms of support for their development, implementation and maintenance of online courses. This reorganization provides more dedicated support for faculty desiring greater assistance with their courses and allows those faculty seeking more independence the opportunity to work at their own pace or be self-sufficient. AOFS staff will assist faculty in all levels of building, implementing, maintaining and fulfilling the standards that help courses conform to the Quality Rubric, meet ADA compliance and provide a quality learning experience for A- State students. This states that we will have support for the entire range of faculty levels of expertise. o Henry Torres: I understand John Beineke s needs. My interpretation is that the statement from Rhonda Dauer is nullified. Faculty are going to need different levels of support. Some need very little, others moderate, and others need lots of help. One click can destroy the entire Blackboard course, so we need support. o Greg Phillips: What do we want to do? Do we send a list of questions, or just tell them what the faculty needs are? o John Beineke: I agree with Henry Torres, let s wait and see if Dr. Cooksey s statement and new policies correct the problems. o Loretta McGregor: We should thank Dr. Cooksey for what she has done and ask if she can confirm that all three levels of faculty expertise will be supported. o Greg Phillips: I ll be glad to draft such a document. o John Pratte: AOFS and ITTC serve different groups of faculty. We need to be sure that both groups have their needs met.

3 o Loretta McGregor: I agree with John. o Mitch Holifield: Will AOS have any impact on curriculum, or other things that have been the primacy of the faculty? Starting in January the changes to ITTC and AOS will be in effect. What the senate asked of Dr. Cooksey was to bring together affected parties to have input into the matter. o Loretta McGregor: I am a new senator. My psychology instincts suggest that this issue stems from miscommunication. We asked for clarification and we have something in writing. Now that we have it in writing, we still don t seem to have it resolved. Why can t we just see if what we have serves the faculty well? o Mitch Holifield: I don t want to contradict what has been said. I would just like to have a few things added. o Greg Phillips: I will draft something and send it around to the faculty senate. o Jeff Jenness: I think John Pratte s point is important and should be addressed. o Loretta McGregor: to Greg Phillips Greg if you would draft the statement and send it around to the Faculty Senate, that would be great. New Business: SGOC Proposals 15 FA 04, Modification of ASU System Intellectual Property Policy Katie Prescott, Fabricio Medina-Bolivar o Katie Prescott o Changes that were made are strictly editorial. No substantive changes were made. My intent was to make this document easier to pick up and run with. Inaccurate titles were removed (titles that didn t exist after the System level was created). o Some items were moved from patent policy to intellectual property. o The name of the policy was changed: All forms of intellectual property that are not subject to patent regulations were separated. o I did meet with the ad hoc committee and they have approved all of the changes. o It might appear contradictory, but it is not. More specific statements carve away at more general statements. o Fabricio Medina-Bolivar: We will have to vote on this at our next meeting. 15 FA 06, Changes in Section II, Faculty Handbook and 15 FA 07, Changes in Section III, Faculty Handbook Mike McDaniel o Greg Phillips: section numbers refer to the new document numbering system not the old Faculty Handbook. We will vote on these at our next meeting. Solicit constituent feedback to be prepared to vote. Status of the Profession Committee, Exit Interviews Bill Rowe

4 o Bill Rowe: I was asked by Dr. Potts to look into the possibility of an ombudsman: not an HR person, someone independent, that shouldn t have to answer to anyone. Didn t fly with the senior staff other than possibly the chancellor. o Bill Rowe: Exit interview: There are reasons why people leave the university. It would be good to ask them why. I discussed this possibility with Andy Mooneyhan. I thought I would continue what we had talked about. If nothing else an exit interview would be a nice gesture. o Julie Grady: What would be done with the information? o Bill Rowe: I would imagine that it would be useful to administration. Thirty years ago we had the top art program in the state. Now we are lucky to be the fourth best. Exit interview is standard procedure in other places such as RCA when I worked there. o Greg Phillips: Exit interview was a tool used at my previous institution to generate information for an NSF grant - ideally the real reason why someone is leaving as opposed to a superficial reason that may have been given. o Julie Grady: There is a big difference between what is given to NSF and what is said in an exit interview. I would be worried that my statement could come back and hurt my department or my colleagues. o Loretta McGregor: It might depend on how the interview is conducted (Survey Monkey, ) o Greg Phillips: When I left my previous institution, I spent about an hour on the telephone with a person for an exit interview and that information was compiled in such a way that everyone s identity was protected. o Loretta McGregor: Yes, the survey should be generated in such a way that identities are protected. o Bill Rowe: My expertise is not in doing surveys or doing statistics. If someone were to compile the information from an exit interview and remove any information that could identify the person that was interviewed, it would be nice to have the data. o Loretta McGregor: When I was department chair, I had faculty members leave because they could make more money at a high school. o Greg Phillips: I will send out a memo and ask if there are others that would like to serve on the Status of the Profession committee. Other: Harassment o Fabricio Medina-Bolivar: Harassment exists on campus. One female faculty member had to move to online classes because of harassment. o Loretta McGregor: Last week in The Chronicle, there was an article by Peter Smith entitled A New Faculty Challenge: Fending Off Abuse on Yik Yak (an app - often female faculty and students are targeted). It is frightening. o Bill Smith: Seventy-two colleges asked the Department of Education to address this issue. We just have to be careful. We will not be in a position to

5 Committee Reports: Chair s Report: act upon it unless there is a threat (bomb, ). Freedom of speech protects this information. o Ryan Kelly: First we have to determine if there has been a violation of law. o Bill Smith: We need individuals to step forward and state that they have threatened. o Loretta McGregor: I know that the person involved in the case mentioned by Fabricio feels isolated, fearful, and unsupported. She feels that she is under a gag order by Arkansas State University. o Greg Phillips: I think that the university process regarding harassment is slow. It may result in termination of an offending party, but it doesn t protect the victim very well. I volunteer to dig deeper on this issue. Handicapped parking on campus: Greg Phillips: What are our policies? I checked with Vice-Chancellor Stripling. They had an audit a few years ago and found that handicap parking and campus policies were appropriate and did meet ADA guidelines. They can charge you the extra $300 for handicapped parking inside gated areas. This is in keeping with regulations. Motion to adjourn: Larz Roberts Submitted by Bruce Johnson, Acting Secretary of the Faculty Senate